The placebo effect is when the patient feels relief from the drug, not really having any therapeutic component arises from the fact that the expectation of relief activates an ancient evolutionary signal system of the brain.Alarm system suppresses the activity of the brain and spinal cord thus actually reduced sensation of pain or other symptoms scientists believe.
This effect, scientists have long been interested in and this interest is related primarily to the fact that pharmacists have long noticed - when testing new drugs, when one group of patients received the new drug, and the second is a blank product, confident that just gets the medicine, some of patients show signs of improvement despite the fact that any treatment they were subjected to.
The causes of this effect, known as the placebo effect, until recently, was not clear.
In order to identify the roots of this phenomenon Eyppert Falk of the University Medical Center in Hamburg (Germany) and his colleagues have developed a special experiment, which involved 15 volunteers.
In the first part of the experiment, the volunteers with the aid of a point heat exposure caused pain in the forearm.
In this case, the experiment was repeated twice - each time the scientists treated wards forearm with a special cream, one of which, according to them, was soothing, and the second - a pacifier.
In fact, both creams were a pacifier, and the experimenters simply reduced the intensity of the thermal effects in the case of a "painkiller" cream. As a result of this experiment, the volunteers elaborated confidence that "analgesic" cream works.
The second part of the experiment differed from the first only in that it is now a case of "painkiller" cream scientists did not reduce the intensity of the heat.
As expected, in spite of this the wards of researchers continued to assert that "analgesic" cream reduces the pain from the heat.
Both parts of the experiment, followed by scanning of the body with the help of volunteers magnetorezonansnoy functional imaging.
Scientists have seen that in the experiment with a "painkiller" cream activity of the spinal cord is suppressed, which apparently leads to underestimation of pain sensation of heat. The suppression occurs under the action of the brain, convinced that the pain should be less.
"We have shown that humans have such a system of protection of the pain is in an active state by physiological factors, such as the expectation of pain relief under the influence of placebo. This effect is very strong and deeply rooted, he goes to the evolution of the nervous system from the primitive animals to people, it's not just a distorted perception or intentional or unintentional harboring volunteer their real feelings, "- said Eyppert.
